ABSTRACT
Work is something in which everyone is involved in one way or another. This applies to people across the whole world. And it has applied to the human species across its whole history. People may work in their own small field, growing food to keep themselves alive. They may work in an office or a factory and, after a day working in an employer’s premises for a wage or a salary, they may return to do their housework or to work in their garden. Even those who do not themselves perform any of these labours are nevertheless involved with work; as owners of land on which other people work, as investors in industrial enterprises or as employers of servants. To understand the way of life of people living in any kind of society we therefore have to pay close attention to work activities and to the institutions associated with those activities.
